"Then there is the additional reason of our joint safety to be considered," continued Hora meditatively. "It seems to me that if you are located in a place of your own we shall be provided with another strategic centre from which to carry on operations. You see it might be important for the safety of both or either of us that we should not be living under the same roof."
"Certainly, I see your point there," replied Guy, and he became thoughtful.
"Think it over, Guy," said Hora, and he left the young man.
Guy thought it over, and was surprised when he did so that the idea proved so attractive. It was not that he was ungrateful. He could not believe that the daily companionship of Hora was becoming distasteful, and yet there was certainly relief in the thought that he should be apart from the man whom he called father. How greatly this thought was due to the impression that Meriel Challys had produced upon him he did not appreciate, but the knowledge that if he were settled in a home of his own he might perhaps escape taking part in any plans for revenge which Hora might be weaving about Captain Marven, was certainly a powerful consideration.
When, therefore, Hora broached the subject again after dinner that night, Guy was quite prepared, nay, even eager, to fall in with his views. Hora was more than ever convinced that some unknown factor was influencing his adopted son.
The only voice raised in protest was Myra's.
"You—you are going away? Why?" she asked.
There was a tremor in her voice which made Hora intervene hastily.
"It is my wish, Myra," he said. The woman shivered at the menace of his tone. But it produced the result Hora desired. She quelled the emotion that struggled for utterance, and listened in silence while Hora reiterated the reasons which he had already given to Guy.
But though dumbly acquiescent she did not believe in Hora's statement as to the motives which animated him, and when, after Guy had left them, she was alone with Hora, she returned again to the subject.